Andyjr1515

I fully copper shield/ shield cables all of my basses and guitars and NOTHING can stop the buzz from our kitchen dimmer switch for a number of them (despite the dimmer being downstairs and I play upstairs and across the landing!). Anything with a pre-amp seems particularly susceptible. I've come across a couple of venues which do have weird buzz sources, but most of the time even the susceptible ones don't seem to suffer. Maybe it's possible that commercial-property dimmers are a different spec to household ones? Oh - and I've found fluorescent lights can be a devil, too - although, happily, most venues don't like the ambience of their stark white light

You beat me to it!

I'm not certain...but would have thought it's Alder

That's an amazing looking piece of timber!

OK - body finished. I'll wax it once the tru-oil is fully hard, but this is now silky smooth: The neck is going to have to wait a week - some family stuff coming up this next week, linked to 40th wedding anniversary - and after 40 years, I know that when MrsAndyjr1515 says, "And all THAT STUFF OF YOURS has got to be cleared away too!" my answer has to be simply, "Yes, Dear."

Having different sounds could be more complicated, but you can certainly make a cigar-box stomp easily enough. Basically a hollow wooden box (wedge shaped for ease of use) fitted with one of those acoustic guitar button mics that stick to the back of an acoustic guitar soundboard makes for a very authentic sounding drum beat. I'm sure with a bit of electronic wizardy you could have a second one with a different tone... Andy

I've started the first sealing coats of tru-oil. Nowadays, I do a basic slurry-and-buff whatever the final finish. I find it an excellent grain-fill and preparatory surface. Having said that, this may well have the full silky slurry-and-buff treatment in any case as a final finish to preserve the feel of real wood - I'll see what Mick's preference is. The finish will smooth out, but this will basically be the final colour there or thereabouts: There's some nice figuring on the back. Again, the dark lines at the top of the main bout and across the upper horn aren't joins - they're natural stains in the grain itself.

That's lovely. Top class.

I can read minds

The other reason dampening the edge is a good thing to do is that it softens the PVA ever so slightly and the fine edge of sandpaper I use to remove it tends to grab and roll off the PVA rather than dig unwanted grooves in the wood. Here we are with most of the PVA sanded off. Takes a bit of patience... : The very, very edge is, of course the veneer and tissue backing feathering down to nothing...where nothing is actually PVA on top of body wood - so actually you can't completely eliminate this. But if I get it right, it should look like a very thin light demarcation line (which I think it's starting to do)

A couple of hints and tips for anyone considering stripping down and veneering: First is that all finishes darken the wood to some extent - some (and I'm talking 'clear' finishes) even additionally tint the wood against the freshly sanded. So how do you tell what colour it's going to end up before you commit before putting varnish or oil all over your masterpiece? Well I just wet it with a damp cloth. This will pretty much be the colour it's going to be with completely clear varnish or oil. You can see the difference on @TheGreek 's Nanyo body. I've just given this a single wipe of a wet but well squeezed out cloth: Some stains may change the colour...but all stains and tints are going to further darken the wood. So the trick to get particular colours and shades is knowing what parts of the colour spectrum to add to this base colour to change it. So, for example, if I wanted to make this classic amber, I would NOT use amber stain - that would turn the wood dark orange - I would probably, instead, add pure yellow. The added challenge is that it wholly depends on the wood. A maple neck, for example, doesn't darken nearly as much and has a naturally yellow tinge when clear finish is applied. So the golden rule is always do trials where it doesn't matter. So back to my earlier comment that the body wood may not need stain to meet Mick's desired look, this is the edge just dampened with water and is representative of a clear finish being applied: The other hint and tip also uses the wipe of a damp cloth... It is essential when veneering this particular way that any stray PVA or overlap is removed before you start staining or finishing. The PVA - invisible when dry - shows white when you apply the finish. So how do you find any missed bits? Same technique - just wipe with a damp cloth. Here's some of the bits still to sand off: Back to the project My own view is that the unstained tone of the body wood compliments the top nicely and is probably a similar depth of colour to some of Mick's examples above. But, as Mick says, we'll be kicking that around offline. The neck, however, will be a different matter and will definitely need staining...and for which I might have just the thing

Sublime....

What I will do, for starters, is dampen the body so everyone can see how dark and what shade the body will start at. The body will darken considerably when any finish is applied, although the neck - being white maple - will certainly need staining to match as that doesn't darken nearly as much....

So, using some already glued offcut from the body: ...I gave the headstock a coating of PVA, let it dry, then ironed it on. And THIS is why I love this hobby!

Ah - but there's the rub. Anyone who has seen my threads knows that while-ever it isn't finished, there's always the chance that I might still get it horribly, horribly wrong!

So now we have the veneer covering the largest area that it physically can (basically, veneer generally can't do compound curves so it covers the flat areas and just round the edges a couple of mm), it is then time to make it look a little less like veneer-just-stuck-on. Mick and I bounced a few ideas off each other and came with cutting away the veneer and blending it into the body a bit like this: So this morning, out came the sanding block The nice thing about having such a defined grain, is that - even though this is only 0.6mm thick - the grain STILL follows the curves at the edges, adding the illusion of depth and giving the illusion that it is a solid top skin rather than a veneer: Next job is the prepare the headstock for the same veneer

I'm pretty sure the veneer will stay that colour. On the other hand, Mick and I still have to decide whether the underlying wood at the edges and back would look best stained or left natural and there are still some options of how much to cut in the veneer into the body wood and where. Whatever, I have a good feeling about how this will look when its finished.

With the glue now touch dry, I can begin the veneering itself: The advantage of the glue being dry is that you can spend as much time as you like positioning it because it barely grabs. Then with a hot (dry) iron (as I said above I happen to use an old heat-shrink iron, but a standard ironing iron works fine), I start in the middle and progressively radiate outwards, making sure the veneer gets hot and applying firm pressure, but moving it in circles so I don't scorch the veneer in one spot: Once the main flat areas are stuck flat (this only takes a few minutes) I start applying firm pressure round the outside of the body shape, starting to seal what will become the edges: To allow the veneer to bend round the edge better, I then remove some of the bulk excess with scissors, keeping an eye on the grain direction to avoid a grain-following split heading towards the body: I then work round the edges with the iron again, peening the veneer over the curve by a mm or two. The glue, once cool grabs in seconds - but it is fully repeatable. Just heat up an area and the glue will remelt and then grab again as soon as you lift the iron and let it cool for a few seconds. If it's a tight curve and a stiff veneer, you can hold the area down firmly with a cloth (to prevent burning yourself) while it cools and grabs. Once all of the flat areas are glued and the edges defined and secure, you can start trimming just past the flat surfaces. I find the easiest way to do this is use a disposable Stanley knife (Swann Morton do them too) and use the body itself as my blade guide, holding the blade at about 45 degrees to vertical: I use a sawing motion. If you are careful, you follow the outline without the risk of cutting into it. BUT - always, always, think of where the grain is going and make sure any split will go away from the body and not towards it. In the above example, I will stop around here and then cut the bottom overhang in the other direction - the grain then naturally pulls the blade (and any split) towards the left and not to the right and into the body. For the chambers, I get my template out and cut a small hole in the middle so I can see where the chamber edges are. Again, I use the chamber sides themselves as the blade guide, this time with the blade vertical: So eventually, you have trimmed it just round the edge of the flat areas, but with no unglued overhang of veneer: Then simply sand with a sanding block along the line of the join. There will be a bit of tidying up to do to sort the edges properly and make sure there is no PVA line or - in the case of the tissue backed veneer, fuzziness - at the edges...and I also need to know from Mick how 'sharp' or 'blunt' he wants the tips of the veneer at the ends of the two horns...but this is broadly done

The veneering is covered in two stages - which is convenient because it means I can type it up as I go along. This is my veneering kit: Basically, we are going to turn standard PVA wood glue into an iron-on glue job I use the mini roller (Homebase/B&Q) for ease and convenience but you could use a rag or sponge. The Evostick is a decent quality white PVA. Probably most decently thick PVA's will do...but don't use the school arts / paper versions - they are too thin and wet. Very, very first thing is taking an impression of what's going to be underneath the veneer. Trust me - without this, you will NEVER find those bridge holes again! Then I cut the veneer to size. This takes a bit of care because there is so much of the figuring that disappears under the bridge, in the neck socket, in the horn cutaways. For the shape of the Nanyo, I've opted for this way round with LHS being at the tailstock. I've also checked the width from the middle of the figuring (which is a touch offset) - I think I can just get this pretty central with a mm to spare at one side Then I put some PVA in the roller tray and roll it onto the flat surfaces of the top: It is essential that there is a covering all over the flat surface and also particularly just over the curve around the sides. After two coats, I've got this: And I leave that to dry - usually takes around 30 minutes. Then I do the same with the veneer. The veneer Mick has sent me if the type with a very thin tissue backing. It is great stuff - behaves exactly like the plain veneer but is much less susceptible to splitting while you are handling it prior to its glue coat. I then leave that to dry too. Some veneers start curling immediately that the glue gets applied. That's what I use the little water spritzer for - I give the back a couple of squirts which counteracts the expansion of the glue side and will stop it curling too violently. This veneer has behaved itself - this is as glued, with the expansion of the back straightening more or less the curve of the rolled-up packaging. This process is not time critical. Once it is dry, you can use it immediately, or days later, or even weeks later! My iron is on (I actually use a small heatshrink iron from my aeromodelling days - saves upsetting MrsAndyjr1515 by getting burnt PVA smears on the hot plate of the household iron!) and I'll go and have a sandwich then iron on the veneer and trim it. See you in 1/2hr or so

One of the other things in the package of bits that @TheGreek sent was this: The veneer that he wants on the body top and the headstock! And it's a bit of a bobby-dazzler! There is a sort of impossibility that natural wood at 0.6mm thick can be rolled tightly like this - but that is how it's often delivered. I once had a boxful of about 8 different woods, some over 2m in length that all came from Germany in a box no bigger - and perfectly and undamaged! Other than the quick demo I did at the Midlands Bass Bash last year, it's been a while since I've done a veneer job so, for those who might be interested in trying it sometime I'll take a number of photos of how I do it. With MrsAndyjr1515 still distracted, that might well be this afternoon's job

I'm pretty sure, once the stain and/or finish is applied, that the join line will become more obvious. But that dark line is a useful distraction nonetheless

And cut and carved That dark natural grain mark heading towards the back is useful because it distracts your eye to the actual join line which is here: I'm pleased how the grain lines seem to join up - at the back too: Again, that natural dark patch takes the eye away from the join.

I'm afraid scarf joints are outside my area of experience. I've never been able to reliably get a good enough flat cut face on a neck to risk doing one They do look nice, though...

Yup - that should work.... I'm chuffed with the joint - one of my better ones I'll get that cut out in the morning and get shaping

Yes. To be honest, it shouldn't actually need a dowel but there's no harm in having that extra bit of security even if just for peace of mind Andy